Tory MPs in fight to halt £40bn for EU

DAVID Cameron will come under pressure this week to block a fresh European Union bid to grab £40billion for its budget.

David Cameron will come under pressure this week to block a European Union bid to grab £40billion []

Eurosceptic MPs say they will try to force the
Prime Minister to use his veto to stop the increase which would saddle
British taxpayers with a colossal bill for the rest of this decade.

MPs
will have the chance to debate proposals that would increase the EU’s
budget for seven years covering 2014-2020 to one trillion euros (£898
billion).

It would amount to a 4.9 per cent rise on the funding for 2007-2013 – a rise of some £40billion.

Britain, France and Germany all say the budget increase, proposed by the European Commission, is unacceptably high.

It
comes a week after 81 Conservatives rebelled against the PM to back a
call for a referendum on UK membership of the European Union.

The
Commons will be asked to back a Government motion that supports
ministers’ “ongoing efforts to reduce the commission’s proposed budget”.

David Cameron will come under pressure this week to block a European Union bid to grab £40billion

But it is likely that Tory MPs will demand that Britain uses its veto to block the increase.

Chris
Heaton-Harris, one of the Tory referendum rebels, said: “Voters realise
that if the EU’s budget goes up at a time when national governments are
imposing cuts, then something is going wrong.”

Mr Cameron is already under massive pressure over Britain’s membership of the European Union.

Polls
have suggested that two-thirds of the public – and 80 per cent of Tory
voters – agreed with the referendum revolt last week.

Philip
Hollobone, also one of the 81 rebels, said: “Many backbenchers think
that the seven-year EU budget is a very good opportunity for the
government to use its veto if it does not get what it wants.”

The
Prime Minister also faces a separate Commons vote before Christmas on
Britain’s contribution to next year’s annual EU budget, which MEPs want
to raise by £5.7billion – an increase of an inflation-busting 5.23 per
cent.

This would cost British taxpayers an extra £834million.

The
increase, at a time when individual European states are having to cut
public spending, is more than double the maximum approved by EU leaders
earlier this year and would take the budget above £112billion in 2012.

James
Elles, Conservative budget spokesman in the European Parliament,
said: “Conservative MEPs are doing all they can to win value for
taxpayers’ money in Europe. We know people cannot afford these
increases.

“Sadly, there
are still many colleagues who are focusing more on increasing
expenditure than finding those areas where we can generate savings.

“As we call for a freeze for the 2012 budget, any increases must be offset with cuts from other areas of the budget.”

The
proposed increase would raise Britain’s annual EU contribution to
nearly £10billion a year, equivalent to more than £400 for every
household in the country.

Earlier this month Foreign Secretary William Hague claimed that the Government had brought the EU budget “under control”.

But Britain has already poured billions into propping up ailing eurozone economies such as Greece, Portugal and Ireland.

It
is resisting any future handouts but EU finance ministers are now
contemplating creating a £2trillion bail-out fund to prevent the
collapse of the euro.

Officials in Brussels insist that not a penny can be shaved from their spending.